• @riodoro1
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    8 months ago

    Hehe, we like meat so much that we’re going to ignore the fact that it destroys the environment and continue farming and eating it like there is still a billion of us on this planet. Also, the prices must be low but i don’t care that living beings are raised in hellish conditions for our convenience. We made it illegal to record those conditions so we don’t have to look at them. Meat delicious, I deserve it three meals a day because look at my prosperity.

    • @finnie
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      8 months ago

      Yeah. It’s the usual nonsense habits of people that they will defend to their dying breath

    • @[email protected]
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      78 months ago

      I know it’s a cliché, but say this on Reddit and you’ll be downvoted into oblivion. Tried it many times. Criticize meat and seemingly reasonable people suddenly start making the same circular arguments they usually mock.

      • @Lauchs
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        58 months ago

        People consider themselves good people and don’t like thinking about the consequences of their actions.

        Same happens when you point out that children lose their limbs for our smartphones. People aren’t going to stop using their smartphones, aren’t going to consider themselves bad people, and so will rationalize however they can.

    • @[email protected]
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      48 months ago

      It kills me how often I see people claim that it is the corporations that are driving climate change and that individuals can do nothing when going plant based would make a huge difference.

    • @Aux
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      -18 months ago

      It’s not destroying the environment, that’s just a myth.

  • @Dadifer
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    558 months ago

    They’re like giant dogs.

      • @SocialMediaSettler
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        48 months ago

        Every time I see this cow picture, I’m always reminded of Pink Floyd.

      • Lvxferre
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        38 months ago

        I never tasted it but people claim that it’s strong-smelling. So perhaps it’s like goat or sheep?

      • @spicysoup
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        248 months ago

        you should show your scientific sources for that claim

      • @[email protected]
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        178 months ago

        when not eating meat has been scientifically proven to reduce your health due to protein starvation

        You misunderstood the science. Not getting a sufficient intake of nutrients, including proteins, is what’s killing you. You can easily get proteins from plants and plant based foods. Then everything is fine.

        but we do have to because we evolved to require it over 12k years ago and nature is cruel like that […] consuming flesh is inevitable

        No. We didn’t and we don’t. If I am not mistaken, in humanities history we mainly had a plant based diet. The massive increase in meat consumption is a rather modern phenomenon.

        We are omnivores, yes. That means we have a digestive system which is able to process meat as well as plants. But that doesn’t mean we have to use both or a single source. It is possible to get all of your required nutrients from plants and plant based sources.

      • Vidar
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        8 months ago

        12k years ago we learned to farm crops.

        We have been eating meat way longer before that (I believe ~400k years?) but only because we were able to use fire to make it consumable for us (cooking also expanded the availability of plant proteins at the same amount). We aren’t really capable of consuming raw meat very effectively until this day. Especially when looking at our digestive system, we’re still very close to the fruit, nut and bug eating apes.

        That’s not evolution.

      • @DarthFrodo
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        48 months ago

        not eating meat has been scientifically proven to reduce your health due to protein starvation

        Citation needed

        It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.

        https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19562864/

  • @StinkyDave
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    408 months ago

    Why does that cow have 3 legs?

  • @[email protected]
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    8 months ago

    I would feel a lot better about it if we treated cattle with existential respect while they gather for our consumption.

    But capitalism does not do that to humans so hoping for mad cow respect in the US is about largely remembering about the fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle.

    • @[email protected]
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      158 months ago

      Just go buy your meat directly from a farmer that only raises a few each year and that lets the cows roam free, it’s not impossible to buy meat that’s much more ethical, you just have to accept the price that comes with it.

        • @[email protected]
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          28 months ago

          It tastes good and I don’t eat it everyday and I try to eat quality meat as much as possible, give me a break.

            • @StinkyRedMan
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              -78 months ago

              The device you typed this on surely do not contain any precious metal obtained through human abuse.

              • @Robin
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                88 months ago

                One form of harm does not excuse the other. We all have to make some effort on multiple fronts if we want the future to be brighter. Besides, it’s easier to survive as a vegetarian than without technology in modern society.

                • @[email protected]
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                  8 months ago

                  Thing is I could make efforts on all fronts except for eating meat every now and then and you guys would still be mad even if I made more effort then you everywhere else.

                • @StinkyRedMan
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                  08 months ago

                  Isn’t it relevant to highlight the hypocrisy of peoples who keep telling everyone they support animal abuse when they themselves support human abuse?

        • @[email protected]
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          -38 months ago

          Meat eating is tightly connected to manliness. Also ideas of freedom. People think doing away with meat would mean more austerity and an attack on their individuality. You could sit someone down, join the dots for them linking meat to environmental catastrophe that affects them and they will still laugh it off with a vapid joke like in the meme.

          • @[email protected]
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            8 months ago

            Meat eating is tightly connected to manliness.

            That’s an interesting proposition. You have a source for that, or a theory of your own? Please share.

            • @[email protected]
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              58 months ago

              https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1290

              The idea isn’t new or obscure but there is an academic source. Have you never heard of alt-right idiots complaining about soy boys? You know they are referring to men who have been emasculated because of aversion to meat and consumption of estrogen-like soy products?

              • @[email protected]
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                18 months ago

                I’ve heard about that, but I feel a majority of meat eaters are quite tolerant with veganism and don’t see it a a threat to their masculinity. And I think I can say this threat isn’t even relevant in the case of women meat eaters. About the study you linked: it doesn’t really try to take an objective standpoint on the matter since its entire premise is the necessity to convince meat eaters to change their eating habits. Also is says itself (end of section 5) that the link between eating meat and masculinity wasn’t specifically targeted by the study. The authors do mention though that the link between masculinity and meat eating can be attributed to perceptions created by industry marketing. But in this article (as well as in my own personal experience) this link seems at best anecdotal.

        • @[email protected]
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          -68 months ago

          Yeah but what about my cat? What about animals in the wild? How can we stop them from eating meat?

            • Lvxferre
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              8 months ago

              But what about you?

              “You’re supposed to pretend that you’re something speshul and above those filthy, disgusting and immoral animals!” - vegans.


              EDIT, replying to a comment (from another poster? the same poster?) elsewhere. I think that it was answering this comment, but the thread got deleted so…

              Yeah, not eating animals means we think we’re “above” them because that makes sense.

              Yes, it does. Unless you also expect other omnivorous species and the carnivorous ones to refrain to eat meat… do you? (You don’t.)

              And yes, this makes sense even if it hurts your “precious, oooh so preeecious!” feelings of superiority over other animals.

              Also some other animal killer here in the comments flat out said “humans are above animals, this is fact” but evil vegans think they’re above animals!

              • Whataboutism: “but what about what the other guy said?”, disingenuously shifting the focus from vegans to non-vegans. Also I’m not responsible for someone else’s statements.
              • False dichotomy: implying that a non-vegan putting himself over other animals automatically excludes vegans from doing the same.

              The false dichotomy is so fucking dumb that it makes me think that you’re implictly admitting to not have any actual argument at hand.

              If you want a serious reply then bring up some something not so infested by fallacies as the above, otherwise I’ll just keep laughing at you, “sorry”.

              (Arguably also loaded language but I’ll cut you some slack on that, given that it has some entertainment value.)

              • @whenigrowup356
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                28 months ago

                I didn’t say any of that stuff so I’m not going to try working through whatever knots of logic you’re working yourself into over there. Hope your conversation with yourself goes well

              • @whenigrowup356
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                48 months ago

                How are your cat and animals in the wild relevant to your choices for yourself?

                • @[email protected]
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                  -18 months ago

                  I agree with you that it’s a personal choice. I was replying to someone who seemed to imply that it wasn’t, and was suggesting that someone who eats meat can just stop doing it. I think that, for some people or some cultures, transitioning to a vegan diet isn’t that easy.

      • terwn43lp
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        48 months ago

        it’s ethical because they name them before slitting their throats 🥰

    • terwn43lp
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      108 months ago

      you can just stop eating meat lol

    • @[email protected]
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      68 months ago

      And what does this existential respect look like?

      Having a bit more joy in life and living a day longer in a cage which is one squaremeter larger until they get slaughtered?

      Still no freedom and an unnaturally early end of life.

  • terwn43lp
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    228 months ago

    the meat industry put out decades of propaganda during the great depression & world wars to convince the western world to buy meat & dairy. truth is, humans have lived off plant based diets for millennia. ending factory farming is one of the easiest ways to combat climate change & corporations

    • @[email protected]
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      28 months ago

      Most people have consumed animal proteins the catch is they weren’t eating a lot meat regularly. One of my ancestors was upper middle class when he migrated to the USA and founded a small city. His journal talks about his meals and as a wealthy person with a dairy farm he still mostly had stew and rarely ate steak. He wasn’t eating animals all the time and that was 1840-80s. We need to go back to a time when eating a whole chicken among a family of four in a single meal almost never happened IF we continue farming animals which as you noted is a climate change nightmare.

    • @[email protected]
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      -48 months ago
      1. Humans have also been eating meat for millennia. We’re omnivores, and have always been opportunistic about what we eat
      2. Individuals cutting down their personal meat consumption won’t stop factory farming, but ending subsidies that make that practice highly profitable might
      • @[email protected]
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        118 months ago

        Point 2 would never be politically possible unless there’s already critical mass of voting vegetarians.

    • @[email protected]
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      8 months ago

      The only evolutionary reason humans have advanced brains is because of nutrient rich meat.

  • punkisundead [they/them]
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    208 months ago

    Fitting slogan i heard at fridays climate strike:

    “For the climate, change your diet! Eat! - The! - Rich!”

  • qyron
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    8 months ago

    Now tell the not romanticized portion, where people get to know the average cow is not friendly nor playful towards humans.

    • BruceTwarzen
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      88 months ago

      Cool, that means we can put them in a cage and eat their children vrfore we eat them. Thanks man.

          • qyron
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            -28 months ago

            There is so much wrong in those words I can’t decide from which to approach it.

            But then again: you do you.

    • @megalodon
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      78 months ago

      I don’t see how that is relevant.

    • @[email protected]
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      58 months ago

      Whether we treat animals fairly shouldn’t depend on whether they’re friendly or playful towards humans.

      Still, every cow looks curious and investigative. And even if they’re skittish, they’re still much more trusting towards humans than we deserve. If the cow understood what was really happening, it would be horrified of the monsters that humans are towards cows.

      • qyron
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        8 months ago

        Now please stop blaming yourself and your entire species for existing.

        Are we supposed to lay on the ground and die because we require animal products to live?

        Let’s stop being stupid or coy and assume we either eat meat and animal products and are willing to pay the moral and material price for it or want to whitewash our conscience by making a life of blaming others for just being alive.

          • qyron
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            -28 months ago

            Animal products are all across our civilization, regardless you use it personally or not.

            Horseshoe crab blood is used to perform specialized tests and analizys. Many forms of gelatin extracted from animal tissues is used to inoculate cultures. Ever heard of lab mice and their importance for scientific research and development, especially when it comes to biomedical and pharmaceuticals? Are you aware that pigs provided human compatible insulin for decades before the synthetic formula was developed? You know replacement heart valves can be harvested from animals? Horses aid in producing antivenoms.

            These are very niche yet very important roles animals play to support our entire civilization.

            So enjoy your dietary option and allow others to do the same.

        • @ziggurat
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          -18 months ago

          Yes I totally agree, we can be humane to animals and still eat them

      • @[email protected]
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        -58 months ago

        Unsure if I fully agree. On one side, yeah cows are exploited. But they get a safe life, with medicine and treatment for illness and physical issues (hooves). Access to food without concern of predators, safe place to sleep and give birth.

        Cows are one of the most successful animals in the world because they’re a resource for humans. They are not allowed to go extinct.

        I’d say humans are by far the best thing that happened to any domesticated animal.

    • @DarthFrodo
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      8 months ago

      Now look at what humans do to cows, or even to other humans. We commit atrocities at a scale that no other species has ever achieved. According to your logic, humans deserve to be treated even worse than cows.

      • qyron
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        58 months ago

        If I wasn’t clear, I’m claiming for the not so pretty side of the story to be told; people tend to romanticize everything, especially when it comes to animals.

        I am not in favour, to any degree, to animals being mistreated and/or abused to any degree, regardless if those same animals are a food source.

        Raising animals for food is not incompatible with caring and making all humanly possible efforts to assure the animals live a good life.

        • @DarthFrodo
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          Raising animals for food is not incompatible with caring and making all humanly possible efforts to assure the animals live a good life.

          People won’t ever stop buying from factory farms as long as it’s socially acceptable, or cheaper options with a close enough taste become available.

          “Nearly 99 percent of farmed animals in the US are factory farmed. There are around 250,000 farms in the US. Every day, 23 million land animals are killed on these farms – around 266 every second”

          https://animalequality.org/blog/2022/10/14/factory-farming-facts/

          I don’t know a single meat eater that doesn’t eat factory farmed meat, including my former self. Do you really believe that people will suddenly start asking about living conditions in restaurants and supermarkets, pay a higher price, and boycot all factory farmed animal products? Speaking of romantizing. This seems like a complete fantasy to me. The vast majority will always buy the cheapest options they can find, no questions asked.

          Defending the notion that systematic exploitation is fine, as long as you stab them “humanely” in the throat, provides the ideological basis for treating animals as products, reducing the cost by treating them as worst as possible. Like most people do right now.

          As I see it, the only realistic way to end factory farming is if either plant-based meat alternatives or lab-grown meat are produced on a large scale to become price competitive. Which seems to be where things are going for many meat categories, although customer acceptance still has a long way to go.

            • @DarthFrodo
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              28 months ago

              No, I’m from Germany. I used the US stats because its the biggest western country. Here in Germany, around 98% of sold meat is factory farmed.

              • qyron
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                08 months ago

                Good morning. I’m in Europe as well.

                Let’s start by not comparing EU to the US in therms of animal wellfare. It is a well established fact how the meat industry operates there: growth hormones, terrible living conditions, lack of sanitation, overcrowding, etc. Plus, on that part of the world, processed foods are more affordable than fresh produce of any kind.

                We’re not exempt of poor examples but we are way above the line of what the average american will consider good animal welfare conditions. This is not to make a statement that I defend animal rearing as it exist in the current industrial model, which I do not. A lot more can be done and to a degree I feel it is underway.

                You are right when you mention economic factors but by some mysterious way, with the crazy inflationary period we’re still living I’ve seen meat prices level, where regular products are as expensive or more than “biological”/animal welfare attested sourced ones, while at the same time people are cutting back on meat consumption to the point retailers and even traditional butcher shops are purchasing less stock.

                Paired to this, over the last few decades, hundreds of pig farms and aviaries have gone out of business while more traditional techniques have been brought back, including to cut costs.

                Likewise, what I am not going to do is try to make people feel guilty by their dietary options and, by extension, of being alive. Restaurants, hotels and similar places consume and waste obscene amounts of food, in particular meat.

                Vegetable production is not exempt of environmental impact and scale is not an argument for me. I’ve seen how greenhouses leave the land when the activities are shutdown, plus the huge water consumptiom, fertilizers and energy. No part is scathe free.

                As it is, we already produce more than we require to sustain the entire human population yet waste what should not be wasted. Measures to counter this are lacking, on all fronts.

                So, it is quite painful for me when we take it lightly - like a meme - shaming and blaming people for wanting to live.

                Please, enjoy and be happy with your dietary option, strike up dialogue and raise awareness but avoid proselitizing.

    • @[email protected]
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      58 months ago

      IME cows were big, dumb and not at all interested in people. Pigs on the other hand have very clear personalities.

      • qyron
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        88 months ago

        Every and any animal has a personality; you just need more time to discover it on some species than others.

        Cows can be very tame, if from a milk breed, and brutal pointy ended stomping and biting machines if from beef breeds.

        Pigs are not tame, at all. I’ve raised potbelly pigs and they could absolute sweets or complete assholes capable of biting or headbutt you without warning. It’s the only farm animal that can revert to feral state.

        And chickens know they were once dinossaurs. Get them in sufficient numbers and they become dangerous. Ever seen a fox afraid inside a chickencoop? I have; at a 100:1 ratio, the poor fox was hoping for a fine meal but was instead made a meal.

            • @[email protected]
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              28 months ago

              No because they were not slaughtered on site but you could tell they all knew when someone wasn’t coming back. It made it hard to eat pork realizing that part.

              • qyron
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                38 months ago

                Pigs can have a sense of numbers, like any herd animal. I get your point. But there are breeds and breeds.

                To my very limited personal knowledge, landrace breeds tend to be more like that, especially breeds selected to be grazed and kept outside, which made sense as it would be desirable to have a closely knit group, where individuals would look out for each other. And this gave rise to breeds that can be extremely dangerous to other animals, including humans.

                Talking with a few pig herders that live around the area I live, Inwas told more “modern” pig breeds tend to be less group and motherly care driven, to the point of sows mauling piglets out of food drive.

                • @[email protected]
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                  18 months ago

                  These were kept outside except in rain or during the height of winter so that might be a factor.

  • Ganesh Venugopal
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    128 months ago

    How does beef taste anyway? I have resolved to never eat it because of my religious upbringing, although I am an atheist now. How does it taste?

    • @AngryCommieKender
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      8 months ago

      The closest analogy that I have found is Ostrich, though that tastes of beef and liver. Venison, aka deer, is much like beef, but with almost no fat, so you have to mix it with a fatty meat to use it as beef, even then there’s a richer “beefyness” to the end result.

      I wish I had tried an antelope steak, when I had the ability to do so, I suspect that would be closer to beef in taste and fat content upon further research.

      Source: over 20 years as a chef.

      • Ganesh Venugopal
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        68 months ago

        I have eaten deer, It was ok! I prefer chicken tbh, but yeah to each our own. Thank you for this! I can trust your because of the sauce lol

    • @Spliffman1
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      deleted by creator

    • @[email protected]
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      78 months ago

      I aint got any way of describing it, good I guess. Its my prefered meat of choice if that gives you any idea. Also what relgion were you raised in? Im gonna guess Hindu.

    • @puppy
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      It’s overrated in my opinion. It’s tasty but not mind blowing in any way like the internet claims. I’ve had better tasting fried chicken to be honest.

    • @bi_tux
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      18 months ago

      It’s the best meat imo. Way better than pork and sheep

      • @[email protected]
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        38 months ago

        If you were born after 1985 and are American your views on pork’s flavor aren’t exactly spot on. We moved to leaner breeds in the 1980s and as a result our pork has a lot less flavor than it used to. There’s a richness to heritage breeds like the ones Neiman Ranch sells that have that flavor still. Other nations I do not believe made this shift.

        • @bi_tux
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          28 months ago

          I’m from austria and if this were the case here, boomers and milenials would constantly nag about it.

          Infact complaining is part of austrian culture (it’s called “sudern”, this word is only used in austria and bavaria)

    • @[email protected]
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      I cannot describe the taste.

      Eat some well barbequed beef and a wave of regret will wash over you, and you will cry for having denied it to yourself for all these years.

      Medium rare beef steaks are hyped up, but it frankly is actually an acquired taste. I’ve eaten hot dogs I liked better.

  • @[email protected]
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    118 months ago

    Carnism is one hell of a drug. Hope you can escape it soon OP. Good luck.

    Same for all the others here still trapped in the beliefs of carnism.

    • @Imotali
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      -58 months ago

      “Carnism” that’s the difference between vegans and non-vegans.

      Only vegans view their diet as a lifestyle and shit on everyone else who isn’t vegan. We’re not “carnists” we don’t give a fuck really except that we hate vegans. Why? Because you lot are the pushiest, most openly judgemental, arrogant pieces of shit to walk the earth.

        • @Imotali
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          08 months ago

          No. Carnism doesn’t exist. We aren’t eating meat to “spite” vegans. We simply don’t agree with your fundamental premise that it is wrong/murder.

          Killing an animal is no where near as evil and wrong as killing a human. See? You assumed we agree on how cruel something is, but you’re objectively wrong. You see it as cruel, I see it as simply how things are. Nature is amoral. And yes, man-made constructs are natural.

        • @Imotali
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          08 months ago

          Prove it’s murder. I reject that premise. You’re taking a lot as axiomatic here. That’s the issue with vegans, you’re assuming I share a fundamental belief system with you.

          I don’t. Prove your assumptions.

            • @Imotali
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              08 months ago

              How did it become meat? We killed it. Killing ≠ murder. Murder is explicitly wrong. I do not see it as wrong up kill animals. They are not of equal worth to humans.

      • @[email protected]
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        28 months ago

        Carnism is simply a name of the belief system. For a long time it didn’t have a name, which is something that psychologically helps oppressors not question their own actions.

        So it was given a name to help point out that it is, in fact, a belief system. The belief that eating animals and their secretions is normal, natural, and necessary.

        https://piped.video/watch?v=ao2GL3NAWQU

        • @Imotali
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          08 months ago

          Except we lack a belief. You’re the ones who believe something. We simply do not believe your belief system. It’s like trying to call atheism a religion, it’s not.

    • terwn43lp
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      238 months ago

      internet is filled with echo chambers who cant make ethical decisions of their own. veganism gets downvoted because it makes people question their morality & they have to make the effort of buying plant-based options. god forbid they eat food without cholesterol

      • @[email protected]
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        18 months ago

        There are plant foods with cholesterol. Palm oils and coconut oils will contain them fir example.

      • @Imotali
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        -18 months ago

        More than half of America lives paycheck to paycheck. Vegan options are more expensive. Until you fix the economic crisis and solve poverty you really can’t enforce veganism.

        This isn’t even getting into the fact that vegan options are literally nonexistent in many places.

        Oh but you don’t care about that because you only care about veganism because it allows you to feel morally superior to others.

      • @pivot_root
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        8 months ago

        Veganism gets downvoted for the same reason any other fanaticism gets downvoted: the vocal minority that talks about it does so with a hoiler-than-thou attitude, much like you are doing right now.

        • @[email protected]
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          178 months ago

          The people who want me to stop punching nonconsenting people in the face unprovoked sure are smug about not punching nonconsenting people in the face unprovoked. They should stop telling me what to do. Live and let live. I am very intelligent. An enlightened centrist you might say! ☝️🤓

          • @pivot_root
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            That’s a false equivalence.

            The vast majority of the Western world does not consider farm animals to have the same rights as humans or pets. Equating the ethics of eating meat and battery is really reaching for an example to make me look stupid.

            But hey, if we’re playing that game, here’s some examples that demonstrate unnecessary and annoying proselytizing:

            The people who want me to {blank} sure are smug about how they {blank}. They should keep telling me how their lifestyle is better. My opinion isn’t as important as theirs. I am very happy to be talked down upon. An enlightened listener, you might say! ☝️🤓

            • Drive a Tesla
            • Drink Pepsi instead of Coke
            • Try homeopathy
            • Wear Versace
            • Own a PlayStation instead of Xbox
            • Cook with propane instead of charcoal
            • @[email protected]
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              8 months ago

              On the basis of their being conscious feeling thinking emotional beings I assert that there is no moral difference between violating the bodily autonomy of a non-human animal and a human. Given a no alternative hypothetical it’s fair to give preference for who to spare, but this is not the same as willful unnecessary violence and killing.

              If it’s false equivalency, demonstrate why it is permissible to kill non humans but not even permissible to punch humans in the face. What is the morally relevant difference? If you could apply that difference to a human, would you then justify doing to them all the things we do to animals?

              Your examples don’t have victims, this one does.

              • @Imotali
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                -18 months ago

                See but you’re assuming that we agree to your axiomatic premise that there is no moral difference between the two.

                We reject your premise. Prove there’s no difference.

              • @pivot_root
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                8 months ago

                From the perspective of cultural relativism.*

                Insofar as our laws view animals, we do not afford them the same considerations or rights as we do our own species. I can’t speak for Europe, but in the legal systems of North American countries, animals are granted their own distinct protections separate from the protections given to entities with the designation of personhood (i.e. humans or service animals).

                For instance, with permits and barring species that are protected for conservation reasons, humans are allowed to hunt and kill animals for both sport and sustenance. In such cases, animals do not consent to their hunting.

                However, that does not mean that it is okay to hurt animals without cause. There are animal cruelty laws that cover unjustified and inhumane treatment of wild and pet animals.

                If it is legal to kill animals but illegal to be “cruel” to them, then the act of killing an animal is not, in itself, cruelty. If it was, then animal cruelty would unconditionally occur during the process of hunting, making the latter illegal.

                With these four points, and keeping in mind that laws are a reflection of the collective beliefs of society, we see that:

                1. Harming humans is viewed as a different act than harming animals, and is not generally permissible.
                2. Killing animals is permissible.
                3. Inflicting intentional cruelty on animals is not permissible.
                4. (2) is not precluded by (3).

                By (1) and that punching a human in the face is an act of harming them (and also illegal), I conclude that it is not morally permissible to punch humans in the face.

                By (2) and (4), I conclude that it is morally permissible to kill non-human animals.


                Just in case anyone thinks relativism is a cop-out answer because laws were written in the past and may not be reflective of society’s current moral views, I ask you to consider this:

                Laws are constantly changed to align with updated beliefs. Canada amended its laws to consider gender identity a protected class, which reflects the contemporary belief that transgender individuals deserve equality and freedom from being discriminated against. If society cared about not killing animals, hunting for sport would be unconditionally outlawed.


                Edit 1: I meant cultural relativism. Non-Western cultures have different (and in some cases, more progressive) views on animal rights.

                • @[email protected]
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                  Foundationally we already disagree, as I’m a moral objectivist. To assert moral subjectivity is to assert that moral progress does not exist. But with your edit your argument is actually now even worse IMO, because instead of focusing on a moral relativist position you’re now basically saying morality=culture/law. i.e., since you have no say in what another society does without disrupting their agreed practice, all their actions are permissible. Bigotry is permissible. Slavery is permissible, hangings are permissible, genocide is permissible, etc, just so long as it simultaneously does not occur within proximity to you and rejects your preference. I think you are tolerant of intolerance.

      • @pivot_root
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        -68 months ago

        You’re not going to change any minds by shutting on the people you’re proselytizing to.

        Give it a few more years until lab-grown meat is cheaper than live animals, and then recommend that as an alternative. People are more motivated by money than ethics.

          • @pivot_root
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            18 months ago

            Habits are hard to break, and the other person needs to have an incentive to stop eating meat and/or animal products. Much like New Years Resolutions, those “I’m thinking of” thoughts are just going to be dropped because there’s no tangible motivation to follow through with them.

            You can try convincing people by teaching them the health benefits from avoiding red meats, but realistically, you’re not going to get far. There’s a lot of misinformation and outdated research on the viability of vegetarian and vegan diets, and it’s hard to change somebody’s mind when they feel like it might be unhealthy.

            This is why I’m hopeful for lab-grown meat being cheaper than actual meat. You’re going to have the “GMO science evil” crowd that can’t be helped, but the average consumer would gladly trade their ground beef for an equivalent-tasting alternative that saves them money. It’s not vegetarian or vegan, but it solves the ethical issue of factory farming.

          • @StinkyRedMan
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            -68 months ago

            If you don’t believe you’re going to change anyone’s mind what are you doing except virtue signalling?

        • @spicysoup
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          People are more motivated by money than ethics.

          pulses, whole grains and vegetables are cheaper than flesh and secretions of animals

        • @[email protected]
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          68 months ago

          Cheap lab grown meat is not “a few years” out. Furthermore, this is like saying you shouldn’t berate people for owning slaves because they are just waiting for robots to come along that can fulfill the same tasks. Even if some magical x factor will cause everyone to be vegan two years from now that would not excuse the conditions we subject animals to in the present.

    • @Noite_Etion
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      38 months ago

      Just a terrible attempt at trolling.

      • @[email protected]
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        38 months ago

        Yeah dude idk how to tell you this but some people actually do have an interest in a sustainable planet and individual’s bodily autonomy. Idc if these are foreign ideas to you. OP’s post itself is the trolling. If y’all don’t want reactionary responses, dont troll this shit to the top post for the last six hours. You’ve all demonstrated very clearly how little you care about anything outside of your own momentary pleasure.

        • @Noite_Etion
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          8 months ago

          You are as pathetic as your trolling attempts. Please shut up.

          Edit: fuck it, I realise that engaging you. Just gonna block you and move on. Have a nice day.

          • @spicysoup
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            98 months ago

            “please shut up!”

            -the response of a child when faced with a situation that makes them uncomfortable

            • Lvxferre
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              -18 months ago

              “please shut up!” // -the response of a child when faced with a situation that makes them uncomfortable

              Two can play this game:

              “Shut up” is also the sensible answer of adults when Christian zealots, nationalists and racists soapbox their shit.

            • @[email protected]
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              8 months ago

              Thousands of animals are killed in every field of vegetables. Rodents, birds, insects. It’s a fucking bloodbath. Don’t pretend you are innocent.

              • @[email protected]
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                8 months ago

                Zero sum game that requires my own death to achieve - seems a reasonable request compared to a request to not participate in the forcible birthing of billions of animals into exploitative confinement until they are killed at our convenience for eternity, or the unecessary trawling of trillions of them.

                Or we can seek to achieve what is possible, and work out what isn’t over time. You describe a technical problem. That aside can you even empirically prove that more animals die in agricultural fields than in nature? I’m all in favor of reducing those deaths but is it actually any worse than if we let the existing fields reforest? I don’t see your point as analogous to my own concerns.

              • @[email protected]
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                58 months ago

                No one is. A lot of people who are preferring a plant based diet due to moral reasons are well aware of such “roadkill”.

                Thing is, we’re not breeding them into existence. These deaths are accidental and if there were a technical solution to the problem everyone would be in favour of that. In the animal industry on the other hand everything is intentional. Both, the scale and the moral intentions are a completely different world there.

                So, from the moral stand point of veganism: is it bad to kill animals? Yes. Is it worse to kill animals intentionally on an industrial scale, which could be prevented, than accidentally on a much smaller scale during plant farming where it currently can not be prevented? Absolutely, yes.

              • @DarthFrodo
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                28 months ago

                And 1.3 million people are killed by cars every year. It’s a fucking bloodbath. So driving a car is similar to intentionally murdering people, of course. Don’t pretend you are innocent if you drive a car.

                • @[email protected]
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                  08 months ago

                  No. That’s not what I was saying. I’m saying that when a cow dies it’s one death. When a field of the same volume in terms of nutrition is harvested it’s many deaths.

                  Beef is worse in the long run for the water and energy use, but not in terms of slaughter.

    • Lvxferre
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      18 months ago

      It’s actually the family version of it. Can’t show the cow butt, think on the children!

  • @[email protected]
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    18 months ago

    I have to eat meat for dietary reasons, but I don’t enjoy it. I do wish I could be vegetarian or vegan.

      • @[email protected]
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        28 months ago

        Possibly iron. There’s heme and non-heme forms of iron and some people are just physically incapable of using non-heme (plant based) iron. It’s uncommon but definitely a thing.

        • @[email protected]
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          If for some reason he medically required heme-iron, I’d rather publicly subsidize the price difference for them to eat impossible meat as that does contain heme-iron. No more requirement to rely on animal products for that. As far as I’m aware though, it’s just a concern of absorption rate. If the absorption rate is the concern they should just focus on taking a higher dosage supplement - which would not require heme-iron.

        • @[email protected]
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          118 months ago

          Growing children will literally starve to death without protein

          Everyone will die without proteins. And you can get all of the required protein from plants and plant based foods. This is not only the case for adults and children but also for pregnant people.

          don’t kid yourselves; if we don’t eat that cow, another omnivore or a carnivore will

          You know that we breed a crazy amount of animals into existence for the sole purpose of killing and consuming them, don’t you? And you know that a lot of times we even throw away a lot of what’s edible from the animal? No other species on earth does this.

          Furthermore, even in the wild predatory carni- or omnivores usually don’t kill a whole population of animals. They kill some, yes for the purpose of survival. But by far not all. And even if that happens, those predators will starve and die until more prey is available again. That’s how predators and prey are balancing. Meanwhile we kill basically every animal we breed for food and we wouldn’t even need them for our survival. There is no such balance. To the contrary. It is one of the major factors of environmental destruction and pollution.

          while dogs, cats and ferrets are obligate carnivores and at least need meat-derived pet kibble in their diet to live

          First of all that might be a reason not to get a pet. Secondly, dogs, cats and ferrets can be fed on a plant-based diet. It might not be as easy and should definetly happen with support of a veterinarian (as most people won’t know for sure what they are doing), but it is proven to be possible without inflicting harm on the animals.

        • @[email protected]
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          118 months ago

          Wow you really know nothing do you?

          Sweet child, you really thought you were eating wild cows? What you eat is produced for you, including animals. The cow is literally born from human activity to die and for you to eat

          And welcome to the real world where animal muscles is not the the only protein source, and definitely not the food that contains the most protein